Government must produce “credible evidence” to support seven day working, BMA says

The government’s plans for seven day services in the NHS lack “credible evidence” and risk wasting resources and endangering patient safety, the BMA has warned.

In a submission of evidence to the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body for NHS consultants’ and junior doctors’ contracts1 the BMA said that the government had failed to produce detailed evidence and modelling on the changes that it wished to introduce, which made it “impossible for doctors to sign up.”

It added, “Furthermore, we believe that pursuing an ill informed seven day service model would be, at best, wasteful for the NHS and would, at worst, threaten patient safety. Implementation of seven …